Dig deep into nature’s medicine cabinet at the Blue Ridge Herb Lore Gathering, which will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 15, 2019, at the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum on the Ferrum College campus. This one-day wellness and healing experience is for everyone so take this unique opportunity to begin your personal journey of wellness. Learn from herbalists whose expertise draws from Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Wise Woman Tradition, regional customs, as well as Rastafarian beliefs. And, experience onsite acupuncture, the best herbal vendors in the region, a nutritious lunch (with vegan options) sponsored by Blue Hills Market of Abingdon, and morning yoga to get you going (if you like)! Herbalists and aspiring herbalists of all levels are welcome. The $75 registration fee includes lunch and a snack. Register now using the form below! For more information, call 540-365-4412 or email bri@ferrum.edu.
The fourth annual Moonshine Heritage Car Show will take place at Ferrum College on Saturday, April 27, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. This unique car show will showcase vehicles that were actual transporters of moonshine or the type of vehicle that was used for the hauling of illegal spirits. Admission is free so bring the family for a day of fun!
There will be plenty of storytelling and bragging about the exploits and history of these special cars and trucks from the actual drivers. After the show, participants will cruise down to Twin Creeks Distillery in Rocky Mount for a moonshine tasting. Also visit the special moonshine souvenir tent with models of stills, mash sticks, and Virginia is for Moonshine Lovers hats, t-shirts, and bumper stickers.
Food will be available onsite from the legendary Bowling’s Hotdogs of Waidsboro.
This event is sponsored by the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum of Ferrum College with the assistance of the Outlaw Cruisers Car Club of Franklin County, VA.
For more information, call the Blue Ridge Institute at 540-365-4416 or email bri@ferrum.edu. To register a car for the car show, please complete a registration form here: https://ferrumcollege.wufoo.com/forms/m17zr5tu1d37fh6/.
To learn more about the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum, visit: https://dev.ferrum.edu/blueridgeinstitute/.
Blue Ridge Institute and Museum Director Roddy Moore, circa 1983.
Arriving just one year after the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum was founded at Ferrum College in 1973, Roddy Moore has been the driving force of the institute, creating events, choosing direction, and collecting relicts. Today, he retires as director, although he plans to stick around to help with current endeavors such as fundraising and the famous Blue Ridge Folklife Festival in October.
“It is impossible to calculate the magnitude of Roddy’s impact on this region,” said President David Johns. “He has helped to preserve the beauty and genius of the folk arts and folk ways of the Blue Ridge and he has introduced us to forgotten treasures that still influence our lives. All of us at Ferrum College are grateful for Roddy’s many contributions throughout his long career here.”
Read more about Moore’s career in this Roanoke Times article.
The Blue Ridge Institute and Museum of Ferrum College is hosting “Christmas in the Blue Ridge: Open House” on Thursday, December 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. The open house will be held at the Institute on Ferrum College’s campus at 20 Museum Drive, Ferrum, and will include refreshments, vendors selling Christmas gifts, caroling, plus a huge live tree decorated with traditional ornaments. This holiday event is free and open to the community, so please bring the family!
The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum of Ferrum College, along with the Outlaw Cruisers Car Club of Rocky Mount, will sponsor the third annual Moonshine Heritage Car Show, which will be held from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Sat., June 9, 2018, at the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum on the campus of Ferrum College.
The show will feature more than 60 cars that either have a moonshine hauling history or were the type of vehicle that was used for transporting liquor. Admission is free and open to the public. Local favorite eateries Bowling’s Place Hotdogs and Daylight Donuts will be onsite.
Following the car show, a “run” will made from Ferrum to Twin Creeks Distillery in Henry where, from 2 – 4 p.m., participants will have the opportunity to see both an old time still and a modern still, and hear about the “makin’ of liquor” in the region. Finally, the Outlaw Cruisers Car Club will sponsor the Midpoint Cruise-in from 4 – 8 p.m. at Midpoint Chevrolet in Rocky Mount, which will feature music and food.
All cars have to be pre-registered for the car show. For more information or to register a vehicle, call (540) 365-4412.
Photo credit: Terry Hall Collection
Put on your dancing shoes–or boots, folks–it’s the “Blue Ridge Barn Dance” with local favorites, Five Mile Mountain Road and Larry Sigmon and Martha Spencer! Hosted by Mountains of Music Homecoming and Blue Ridge Institute & Museum, the event will be held Friday, June 8 from 7 – 10 p.m. at the Blue Ridge Farm Museum at Ferrum College. There will be plenty of boards for flatfooting and childrens’ games before the event. Bring the whole family for this Crooked Road musical showcase. Tickets are $15 for adults and $7 for children and may be ordered online here.
Five Mile Mountain Road is a string band based in Boone Mill, Virginia. They love to romp through the great old time and early bluegrass songs and tunes and know how to get dancers up and moving and onto the barn dance floor. For extra entertainment, the band throws in early country and swing music for good measure.
Larry Sigmon of Callaway and Martha Spencer of Whitetop Mountain get more music out of the clawhammer banjo and an upright bass than many groups with three times the instruments. As their dedicated following of old time dance enthusiasts can attest, it is hard to find another group that can lay down as infectious a beat when Martha’s slap bass style is combined with Larry’s rock solid old time banjo playing.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity as part of the 4th Annual Mountains of Music Homecoming!
***The Moonshine Heritage Car Show originally scheduled for this weekend has been postponed until a summer date that is yet to be determined.***The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum of Ferrum College, along with the Outlaw Cruisers Car Club of Rocky Mount, will sponsor the third annual Moonshine Heritage Car Show on Sat., April 7, 2018 at the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum on the campus of Ferrum College.
The show will highlight cars that either have a moonshine hauling history or were the type of vehicle that was used for transporting liquor. All cars have to be pre-registered. The show will run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Afterwards, for those interested, a “run” will made from Ferrum to Twin Creeks Distillery in Henry.
The show is free and open to the public. Local favorite eateries, Bowling’s Place Hotdogs and Daylight Donuts, will be onsite.
For more information, call (540) 365-4412.
Photo credit: Terry Hall Collection
The Blue Ridge Institute & Museum of Ferrum College is looking for three Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) bands/musicians to perform at FloydFest on July 28, 2018.
For consideration, musicians/bands must submit at least two representative songs, plus a musician/band photograph, via electronic press to bri@ferrum.edu or CD/DVD (mailed to JAM Bands at FloydFest, c/o Blue Ridge Institute & Museum, P.O. Box 1000, Ferrum, VA 24088.) YouTube or other music video links are strongly encouraged but not required.
Entries must be sent to the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum by April 15. Band selections will be made before May 1. Each band will perform two 30-minute sets on the Children’s Universe Forever Young Stage at FloydFest.
For more information, contact the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum at (540) 365-4412 or bri@ferrum.edu.
President David Johns, BRI Co-director Roddy Moore, Provost Aimé Sposato, and BRI Co-director Vaughan Webb attended the VCA event at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
The Ferrum College Blue Ridge Institute & Museum (BRI) was recently named a Bedrock Institution by the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA), which celebrated its 50th Anniversary by honoring people and organizations who have inspired and championed Virginia cultural heritage for over 50 years. One of the 50 for 50 Arts Inspiration Awards, the Bedrock Institution category recognized institutions that have been in existence more than ten years, have demonstrated artistic excellence, and are a significant benefit to their community. BRI Co-directors Roddy Moore and Vaughan Webb accepted the award on Wed., Jan. 31, 2018, during an event recognizing award recipients that was held at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond.
“It was exciting to be present to see our BRI receive the much-deserved Bedrock Institutions Award,” said Ferrum College President David Johns, who also attended the event. “Although I am new to the area, I have already heard many across the Commonwealth speak about the BRI’s impact on this region. Its historical focus adds a distinctive element to Ferrum College academic programs. Our museum exhibits, festivals, and outreach programs celebrate the culture and peoples of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’m proud of our staff and their accomplishments.”
Since 1973, the BRI has documented, interpreted, and presented the folkways of Virginia, especially those of the Piedmont and western parts of the state. The Institute’s focus on the people whose artistry reflects longstanding family and community customs is respected nationwide. The Commonwealth of Virginia designated the BRI the official “State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore” in 1984. Together Moore and Webb have over 80 years experience as folklorists in the region and have long worked to bring audiences face-to-face with authentic regional folk arts and the people who carry on those traditions.
“Folk culture is always changing. It is important to continue to offer fresh outlooks on the traditional arts, as they reveal all of us to be tradition-bearers in an ever-evolving society,” said Moore.
The BRI was chosen as one of the 50 for 50 Arts Inspiration Award winners from an original pool of over 350 nominees by a panel of former Commissioners and arts leaders and confirmed by the full VCA Board.
Ferrum, Va. (Oct. 11, 2016) – There is only one place to eat a homemade fried apple pie, watch coon dogs in a cross-pond race, and hear a national guitar flatpicker, all at the same time. On Saturday, October 22nd, the annual Blue Ridge Folklife Festival will bring together on the Ferrum College campus dozens of regional living-heritage treasures—country cooks, craftspeople, musicians, moonshine tale tellers, draft horse and dog handlers, car builders, tractor restorers, and much more. The result is a full day of unforgettable family-friendly entertainment.
The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival is a treat for all the senses. Draft horses pound the ground in log skidding and weight pulling contests. Sheep dogs drive their flocks to whistled commands. Coon hounds bark and bay in treeing contests and water races. The BRFF also features the state championship coon mule jumping contest, harkening back to the days when hunters pursued raccoons on “muleback” at night.
Music pours continuously from three festival music stages offering 21 hours of fiddle-and-banjo tunes, bluegrass, gospel, country blues, ballads, and sentimental mountain songs. Three special workshops highlight Blue Ridge guitar styles, family band traditions, and the songs of Southwest Virginia’s legendary singing school master, L. V. Jones. For foot-tappers, old-time dance string bands and bluegrass pickers abound at the BRFF.
For those whose preferred “music” is the rumble of burning gasoline and the hiss of steam, the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival attracts over 250 custom and restored vehicles and scores of tractors and hit-and-miss engines. With flywheels spinning, antique massive power machinery demonstrates rock crushing, threshing, and hay baling.
The BRFF showcases over 50 regional craftspeople demonstrating the heritage hand skills they learned in their families and communities. Shoppers find a host of traditional craft items not found at craft shows, including hand-split oak baskets, lye soap, and musical instruments. On the moonshine stage old moonshiners and revenuers swap tales of their exploits years ago, while children run and laugh in the folk games area. Then there’s the food—20 old-time country foods to please any taste.
“Our festival presents the living heritage of the Blue Ridge,” said BRFF director Roddy Moore. “These talented people are true regional treasures.”
Held rain or shine, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., on the Ferrum College campus, the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival is a one-of-a-kind experience. Priced with the family in mind, admission is: Adults–$10; Youth (6-15)–$5; and Senior Citizens (60 and over)–$5. Advance tickets can be purchased by check or credit card at 540-365-4412. Parking is free.
For more information, visit www.blueridgefolklifefestival.org, email bri@ferrum.edu, or call 540-365-4412.
